Sheryl Sandberg is a role model, say her defenders. The chief operating officer of Facebook earned two degrees from Harvard and spent the early part of her career in public service, rising to become chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers during the latter days of the Clinton administration.

She helped build Google into a powerhouse; she has led the Facebook team in making the social media site ubiquitous. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd recently touted her as a potential candidate for national office.

And she's a mother who cares deeply about work-life balance and has been outspoken about women pulling together. It's that last part that's the problem, writes Mona Charen in National Review.

Charen takes issue with Sandberg's book, Lean In, which encourages women to stop sabotaging their own professional success by pushing harder in the workplace. Sandberg should instead be encouraging working women to return home and focus on being good mothers.

"Isn't it odd that people who exhort us to increase the number of women in powerful, high-paying jobs, on the speculative grounds that this will be good for the world, discount the roles of women as mothers, which are (usually) of undeniable benefit to their kids?" Charen writes. "Many women have figured this out. One put it this way: 'The world will not be affected one way or another if it has one more accountant during the next decade. But my kids will be profoundly affected by having me raise them.'"

She adds, "Many women also find that devoting their time to raising happy, ethical, and responsible children is more rewarding than spending 60 hours a week at the office. Why should they be made to feel that they are letting down the team?"

[readon1 url="http://politix.topix.com/homepage/5067-facebook-chief-should-have-stayed-home-with-the-kids"]Source:politix.topix.com[/readon1]

Editor's note: What's really holding women back? The glass ceiling? The boys club? Having a family? Or is it women themselves? Watch CNN's special coverage of "What Women Want" throughout Monday and Tuesday. Plus, watch Soledad O'Brien's interview with Sheryl Sandberg on "Starting Point" at 7 a.m. ET on Monday, March 18.

(CNN) -- I often feel like a high-class prostitute, I just don't charge like one. Call girls seem to know their black book value, or at least their madams do. But sadly, many professional working women don't get or demand the compensation they deserve.

It begins after college when young women are already making less than the guys -- 82% of what their male peers receive, according to a recent study by the American Association of University Women. It gets worse over time, particularly for women who temporarily take themselves out of work by choice or necessity when they become moms. This chronic feeling that they are giving it up for free can hurt women's lifelong earning power and their self-esteem.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg wants to give America's women workplace moxie and the skills to break through barriers that are holding them back, namely themselves. Sandberg's new book, "Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead," is already generating the kind of buzz-worthy backlash and controversy that brings out the schadenfreude from the entire political rainbow of female commentators. Because she's a billionaire and home for dinner with the kids at 5:30, her gilded life makes her hardly relatable to virtually any other working mom.

The book, together with an ambitious "Lean In" social movement of monthly meetings dosed with inspirational anecdotes from other women, is all about bringing on the girl power and getting us out of the cubicle and into the corner office. "Lean In" comes ironically on the high heels of Marissa Mayer, the 30-something, newly minted Mama Bear CEO at Yahoo! who pulled the plug on the flex policies that allowed employees to work from home. Mayer, who has a nursery for her own newborn in her office, is getting hazed for this seemingly retro and anti-family move. Is Mayer the ultimate sellout or the quintessential feminist? Well, depends who you ask.

But have no doubt, working women are back on the political radar. President Obama gave a shout out to the cause of equal pay at his recent State of the Union. The White House also has created several initiatives in the wake of Obama signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in January 2009, the first law he signed in his administration. The law amends the Civil Rights Act, extending the period women can sue for gender pay discrimination.

So why do so many accomplished women get snared in the vicious cycle of not getting paid properly for the work they do? The problem, Sandberg's book points out, is internal. Women can get squeamish about negotiating for money and don't know how to effectively advocate for themselves. We are hard wired to make nice, not make people uncomfortable. Discussing money, for many women, feels exceptionally awkward.

In my zigzagging career as a TV producer, writer, PR strategist, website editor-in-chief and TV spokesperson, I have cut my rates, jumped at the first offer, and even worked for free. Sometimes, I've just felt lucky to get the job.

This behavior, said Mika Brzezinski, the best-selling author of "Knowing Your Value: Women, Money and Getting What You're Worth" and co-host of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," is not unusual for women, but it's disastrous. It undermines our value. She said we must stop feeling grateful and instead become fierce and focused. Work hard and go after what you deserve.

Brzezinski's book was born from personal experience and her admitted failure of not cutting herself a fair deal and getting the money she deserved. At the time, Brzezinski's on-air TV career had stalled, and when she landed the gig at "Morning Joe," she never negotiated. Barely making ends meet and hearing she was earning 14 times less than her co-host, Joe Scarborough, was depressing and painful. After all, Brzezinski was working her tail off on "Morning Joe," helping take it from an unknown MSNBC show to a political commodity. Like so many women, Brzezinski thought if she worked hard, she would eventually be rewarded. But her paycheck left her defeated and bitter. Brzezniski eventually got a significant raise. But she was prepared to quit the show when MSNBC finally came to the table.

"We are good at advocating for other people but not for ourselves. You are asking not for the money you need, but the money you deserve," said Brzezinski. "It's a cop out to say this just happens to women. We have to step up and take what we want and not feel uncomfortable for it. No drama, no games, no whining. Make them need you and be ready to walk."

Lyss Stern, founder and president of Divamoms.com, a luxury lifestyle company for mothers in the Tri-State area, said she knows what it's like to not be taken seriously. Because of her extensive network of influential and affluent moms -- an important demographic -- Stern's company is highly sought after by consumer product brands, entertainment companies and fashion and beauty businesses around the country. But it has been frustrating for Stern to get men, often the people making the deals, to recognize the value of her company.

"I've found that it's the men who think they can get away with not paying for my work. To them, they see a mom company as a hobby, not a business," Stern said. "I have multi-million dollar companies reaching out to me each day. They will take out a $100,000 ad campaign in The New York Times, but e-mail me and say they want to do business but have no real money to budget for me. It's insulting."

In business for nearly a decade, it was relatively recently that Stern's attitude changed and she had the confidence to politely walk away from a lousy deal.

"It took me seven years to truly understand the worth of my brand and to be able to say that if you don't take me seriously, I don't want to work with you. It's your loss," Stern said.

But many women simply lack the mojo to say no. It's almost as if women are conditioned to be pleasers and say yes, even if it's not lucrative for them. They depreciate their own value just to get the work but are then resentful that they've sacrificed themselves.

"It's a vicious cycle. All of a sudden 20 years go by and you realize, wait, I'm supposed to be making more not less, what happened?" said Brzezinski.

She said that getting what you deserve at work can also have a domino effect on all areas of a woman's self worth.

"It changes your life to know your value and every relationship you have is better and stronger and more rewarding and lasting," Brzezniski said. "Women end up sabotaging their relationships when we don't demand respect for our value from other people."

[readon1 url="http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/12/living/women-demand-equal-pay/?hpt=hp_c1"]Source:/www.cnn.com[/readon1]

Hold approval on paid blood plasma clinics, Ottawa urged Blood plasma is the straw-coloured liquid portion of blood traditionally used for transfusions or hemophilia drugs. It can also be processed into immunoglobulin, an intravenous drug for cancer and other diseases. (Jean-Paul Pelissier/Reuters)

Health Canada should hold off on approving blood clinics that pay people for their plasma, Ontario's health minister says.

Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews asked her federal counterpart on Monday to hold off approving two clinics in Toronto and one in Hamilton planned by Canadian Plasma Resources.

"As health regulators and care providers, I strongly believe that before Canada considers allowing paid-donor blood plasma clinics to proliferate throughout the country, we first need to develop a better understanding of the impact that this development would have on our voluntary blood products donor system," Matthews wrote.

"I am confident that Canadians will continue to voluntarily donate blood, plasma and platelets for altruistic reasons, rather than financial incentives. I also believe it would be irresponsible to allow a shift towards a paid-donor system without first determining how it could impact the supply of blood and blood products. I think we owe it to Ontarians and Canadians to have that discussion before any approvals are granted."

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq responded to questions from CBC News in an email from Yellowknife.

"Canada has one of the safest blood systems in the world, and I want to help keep it that way," Aglukkaq said. "While this application is under review, I've instructed Health Canada to seek the views of individuals and organizations who are interested in this issue."

Last month, CBC News reported that Canadian Plasma Resources is setting up paid-donor blood plasma clinics in Toronto.

Plasma is a component of blood that contains proteins that can be used to treat diseases.

Blood experts raised concerns about the "slippery slope" that could divert volunteer blood donors to the paid system.

Matthews also said her ministry is evaluating what tools the government might have to ensure no paid-donor clinics open in the province before consultation.

The federal New Democrats also raised concerns last Wednesday during question period. Health critic Libby Davies called profit-making brokers one of the causes of the tainted blood disaster that left 20,000 Canadians infected with HIV and hepatitis C.

Canadian Blood Services has said it has no plans to purchase plasma from the new operation.

"Voluntary donations should be maintained and protected," reads a memorandum of understanding between the provinces and Canadian Blood Services.

[readon1 url="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2013/03/11/blood-plasma-sale.html"]Source:www.cbc.ca[/readon1]

First of 204 new, longer streetcars to be tested on open roads later this month

The Bombardier streetcars, shown in an artist's rendering, are scheduled for a full rollout next year. (Bombardier Transportation/Canadian Press)

Toronto city officials hope the first test run of a new, longer streetcar will show a smooth ride ahead for the 204 new vehicles scheduled to roll out next year.

The new streetcars, priced at $1.2 billion, have never been tested on city streets.

The test model that's been delivered is still undergoing internal tests at a Toronto Transit Commission yard, and is scheduled to be tried on the road in the next two weeks.

Coun. Paula Fletcher says she's excited and nervous to see them in action. Designed specifically for Toronto by Montreal-based Bombardier as part of a deal signed in 2009, Fletcher's worry is that a vehicle of this kind has never operated in open traffic anywhere in the world.

"Everyone's just waiting to see how well they're going to work on the current track," she said.
Longer than current double streetcars

Each of the vehicles will be 30-per-cent longer than the existing double-length streetcars.

"We have a lot of anomalies on our roads so I hope … that they'll be able to move around the city," Fletcher said.

Coun. Gord Perks is also anxious.

"Until you actually run the car on real streets, you don't know where that one turn that doesn't conform to what you've got on paper is going to be," he said.

TTC spokesman Brad Ross says he'd like to see the vehicle in action too, but is confident everything will go well.

"There are no curves, there are no hills, there are no loops, there are no switches, there are no pieces of track in Toronto that the streetcar is not designed and engineered to handle," he said.

The new streetcars will replace the current fleet of 248 streetcars purchased in the 1970s and 1980s.

According to the 2009 announcement, the new streetcars will be low-floor, quieter and come with air conditioning, and be able to carry almost twice as many people as the current models.

[readon1 url="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2013/03/05/toronto-new-streetcar-tests.html"]Source:/www.cbc.ca[/readon1]

Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro announced on March 5, 2013, that President Hugo Chavez has died at age 58

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the charismatic leftist who dominated his country with sweeping political change and flamboyant speeches, died Tuesday at age 58, after a long battle with cancer that was shrouded in mystery and prevented him from being inaugurated for a fourth term.

Adored or reviled for his self-styled populist revolution, Chavez held sway over Venezuela through a cult of personality, government reforms that championed the downtrodden, and an endless stream of rhetoric denouncing capitalism, imperialism and the United States.

The "Chavistas" praised El Comandante for reducing extreme poverty and expanding access to health care and education. Critics blamed him for high inflation, food shortages, escalating crime and mismanagement of the country’s oil industry.

Human rights groups lambasted him for politicizing the judicial branch, and undermining the democratic system of checks and balances.

To many he was a charming populist who sang and danced on his weekly television show and gave the impoverished a voice; others saw him as an autocrat who plastered his portrait all over the country and failed to deliver on the promises of what he called the "Bolivarian revolution."

"He will be remembers as someone who generated over 14 years an international presence and impact way beyond his country's size or wealth and beyond his own talent and personal charisma," said Jorge Castenada, the former Mexico foreign minister and NBC's Latin American policy analyst.

"And I think he'll be remembered for having tried to make a life of poor people in Venezuela better but in the end of the day, having made it worse. When the consequences of his economic policies become apparent, it will end up that he spent an enormous amount of money to make people a little better off for a short period of time."

The last two years of his presidency were overshadowed by his health struggles. After declaring himself free of an unspecified cancer, he fended off a tough challenge to win re-election in 2012 — even giving an epic nine-hour speech during the campaign.

He soon relapsed and was rushed to Cuba for surgery. He was deemed too sick to be sworn into office in early January, and was still gravely ill when he made a surprise return to Venezuela in mid-February, heralded on a Twitter account with 4 million followers.

His deputies insisted he was still in control, signing documents and holding meetings in a Caracas hospital room even if a tube in his throat had silenced his well-known voice. But by this week, the end seemed imminent with reports of a new respiratory infection.

In an address to the nation Tuesday afternoon, Vice President Nicholas Maduro said Chavez was facing his "most difficult hours." A few hours later, he announced Chavez's death.

Born July 28, 1954, to schoolteachers in a small Venezuelan village, Chavez was raised by his grandmother and entered the military academy in Caracas at age 17. Six years later, inspired by the life of 19th century South American revolutionary Simon Bolivar, he formed a secret movement within the army.

Rising through the military to the rank of captain, he led a bloody coup attempt in 1992 that failed and landed him in prison. Pardoned two years later, the ex-paratrooper re-launched his revolt against the ruling class and announced his candidacy for president in 1998.

"The resurrection of Venezuela has begun, and nothing and no one can stop it,'' he bellowed to a roaring crowd after a landslide victory made him the youngest president in the history of Venezuela.

As president, Chavez created a new constitution and had the name of the country changed to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. He took greater control of the state-run oil company, expanded the country’s armed forces, and instituted government programs to create jobs, housing and services for the poor.

A 2009 report by the progressive think tank Center for Economic and Policy Research found poverty was cut in half during the first decade of Chavez’s rule; child mortality fell by a third; malnutrition deaths were down by 50%; and college enrollment almost doubled.

At the same time, one non-government report estimated Venezuela’s murder rate quadrupled while Chavez was in power. In 2012, inflation hit 18%. Accusations of corruption and nepotism dogged his administration.

Problems aside, he enjoyed tremendous loyalty from his supporters. A 2002 coup during an economic crisis kept him out of power for just two days — and he claimed the United States had orchestrated it.

Chavez’s relations with the U.S. — referred to derisively as the "empire" in his epic speeches — were icy. He called President George W. Bush "the devil" and "the king of vacations." In 2010, he demanded Secretary of State Hillary Clinton resign "along with those other delinquents working in the State Department."

He lavished praise on Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi and Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, but his staunchest ally was Cuba. He kept the island nation flush with oil in exchange for its well-trained doctors and teachers, and he was visiting Havana when he fell ill in June 2011.

In an address to the nation a few weeks later, he admitted neglecting his health and said it was Fidel Castro who got him to admit he wasn’t feeling well, leading to the discovery of a tumor in his pelvis and emergency surgery.

In the following months, the twice-divorced Catholic shuttled between Cuba and Caracas for treatment even as he sought a fourth term, made possible because he had pushed through the abolition of term limits in the constitution he had rewritten.

Days before the election he would win with 54 percent of the vote to his opponent’s 45 percent, he spoke to a rally of supporters in Caracas, displaying the trademark swagger that had made him one of Latin America’s most captivating, if polarizing, leaders.

"Since I haven’t failed you in these 14 years," he said, according to the Associated Press. "I promise I won’t fail you in the next presidential term.

"Because Chavez doesn’t lie. Because Chavez doesn’t sell out. Because Chavez is the people. Because Chavez is truth. Because all of you are Chavez. We all are."

[readon1 url="http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/05/17135772-venezuelas-comandante-hugo-chavez-dies?lite"]Source:wworldnews.nbcnews.com[/readon1]

The system dropped a foot of snow in the Dakotas Monday as it trekked eastward

Mother Nature is apparently saving the best, or at least the biggest, for last.

Chicago residents expected to find themselves in the midst of a storm that could wind up dumping as much as 10 inches of snow in the area before the end of Tuesday — the most since the 2011 blizzard and its more than 20 inches of snow.

"This will be the biggest widespread storm of the winter," National Weather Service meteorologist Amy Seeley said. The forecast is for 8 to 10 inches throughout northeastern Illinois and northwest Indiana, a far cry from last March, which saw less than a half-inch of snow and was the warmest one on record in Illinois.

Hardware stores in and around the city did brisk business Monday, selling salt and snow shovels at a time many usually turn their thoughts toward gardening and baseball.

"Everybody's got a little comment with every bag they're buying," said Mike McIntosh, who works at Dressel's Hardware in Oak Park just outside Chicago. Workers had started to stock the shelves with tools and supplies associated with spring and summer, only to find the shovels and salt they thought they'd hold for another year were still in demand.

"Everybody's a bit surprised, but it's good for us, we've got a lot of this stuff to move," he said.

On Monday, the system moved across the Dakotas and Minnesota, dropping up to a foot of snow in some areas and freezing rain in others. Some schools closed and officials warned motorists to stay off the roads.

As it moved eastward, emergency officials in a number of states issued similar warnings in the hopes that commuters will leave their cars in the garage and take public transportation to work. In Wisconsin, where as much as a foot of snow is in the forecast, emergency managers urged residents to put winter survival kits in their vehicles and check on road conditions.

State patrol officers were searching for a semi driver in the Red Cedar River near Menomonie in western Wisconsin early Tuesday after the vehicle slid off the nearby snow-covered Interstate 94 into the frigid waterway.

A wet snow pelted commuters as they slid along the slick streets of downtown Chicago through the soggy wintery mix early Tuesday. Snow was forecast for the morning and afternoon rush hours, Seeley said. The weather service also said that as much as 1.5 inches of snow could fall per hour, "making snow removal difficult and travel extremely dangerous."

Ill. Gov. Pat Quinn urged motorists to avoid driving unless absolutely necessary, insisting that "safety comes first."

The Illinois Department of Transportation planned to send a fleet of 360 trucks to plow roadways in northeastern Illinois early Tuesday, with a total of 600 throughout Northern Illinois.

The storm is creating wet, heavy snow — known euphemistically as "heart attack snow" — which could pose a risk when it comes time to shovel for the elderly, sedentary people or those who have heart problems.

"Shoveling snow is a lot of work. ... It is taxing their bodies and their hearts," said Dr. David Marmor, a cardiologist at NorthShore University HealthSystem in Evanston. "People are really testing their limits, and if they're already at high risk they are better off paying the kid across the street to do it."

If the area does get 10 inches of snow, it would only underline that this has been a mild winter, Seeley said. That amount would raise the snowfall this season from 20.3 inches to 30.3 inches — just a tenth of an inch more than what Chicago sees in a typical winter.

In northern Iowa early Tuesday, at least one person was enjoying the gentle snowfall.

"It's absolutely gorgeous out," said Mary Hermanson, the night shift front desk clerk at the Super 8 in Mason City.

"If I'm going to have snow come down, that's what I want to have come down," she said of the 10 inches that had fallen in the area in the past 24 hours. She happily said it reminded her of Christmas.

[readon1 url="http://news.msn.com/us/widespread-snowstorm-pelts-midwest-heads-east"]Source:news.msn.com[/readon1]

Win extends points streak to 11 games, puts Montreal first in Eastern Conference

BOSTON — The Canadiens took advantage of Zdeno Chara’s absence to stage a third-period comeback and defeat the Boston 4-3 Sunday night at the TD Garden. The Canadiens scored two goals while Chara was serving a 10-minute misconduct for being the instigator in a fight with Alexei Emelin. Max Pacioretty tied the score at 3-3 when he scored his eighth of the season at 5:31 and then set up David Desharnais, whose second goal of the game proved to be the winner at 9:17.

Back on top: The win put the Canadiens back in first place in the both the Eastern Conference and the Northeast Division with 32 points. The Canadiens, who have an 8-0-3 record in their last 11 games, are two points ahead of Boston but the Bruins still hold three games in hand.

Streak continues: Max Pacioretty scored at 4:31 of the third period to tie the game at 3-3 and then assisted on Desharnais’ go-ahead goal. The points extended Pacioretty’s current point streak to four games with four goals and three assists. He’s the Canadiens’ leading scorer with 20 points.

Boychuk helps out: David Desharnais received an assist from Bruins defenceman Johnny Boychuk when he tried to find Pacioretty in the crease at 11:03 of the first period. Desharnais gave the Canadiens a 2-1 lead when his pass caromed off Boychuk’s stick.

Mixed results on the PP: Tomas Plekanec opened the scoring when he beat Tuukka Rask on a power play at 9:57 of the first period. Michael Ryder set up the goal for his first point since rejoining the Canadiens. But Montreal finished the night with a 1-for-5 record and managed only one shot when they had a 5-on-3 advantage for 1:10.

Budaj delivers: Backup goaltender Peter Budaj made 30 saves, including a game-saver on Tyler Seguin in the dying seconds, to post his third consecutive win. He’s 3-2 on the season and 2-1 lifetime against the Bruins. Tuukka Rask took the loss and he’s 2-7-1 lifetime against the Canadiens.

Tempers flare: There were two fights late in the second period. Brandon Prust and Milan Lucic exchanged unpleasantries at 15:01 and Zdeno Chara went after Alexei Emelin at 15:45 after it appeared that Emelin cross-checked Tyler Seguin Emelin is reluctant to fight because he has had reconstructive facial surgery and Chara took an extra two minutes as the instigator and what proved to a crucial 10-minute misconduct.

What’s next: Boston was the first stop on a five-game road trip which continues Tuesday on Long Island (7 p.m., RDS, TSN-690 Radio). The Canadiens are in Carolina Thursday and then head to Florida for back-to-back games Saturday against the Tampa Bay Lightning and Sunday against the Florida Panthers.

[readon1 url="http://www.canada.com/sports/hockey/montreal-canadiens/Canadiens+come+back+beat+Bruins/8043241/story.html"]Source:www.thestar.com[/readon1]

Sheila Billard paid into the Canada Pension Plan all her life. When she died her husband’s survivor benefit came to $22.75 a month.

The decision to start taking the Canada Pension Plan at 60, or to wait until as late as 70, is one that requires some thought.

Starting early gives you the satisfaction of enjoying a benefit that you’ve paid into all your working life. Waiting gives you a much bigger payment.

But as the case of two Nova Scotia retirees Winston and Sheila Billard shows, even the best laid plans can go astray.

Winston, 72, is a retired teacher who lives in Cape Breton and paid into the Canada Pension Plan for 37 years. He started drawing the pension when he was 63 and last year was receiving $883 a month.

His wife Sheila, a nurse, made contributions for 44 years. She enjoyed being active and continued to work part-time at a local nursing home into her 60s. This additional income, plus other pensions and savings, meant the couple didn’t need her pension immediately, so she delayed taking CPP.

Last year, when Sheila was 66, she was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. She applied for CPP and received two monthly payments of $1,053 before she died in June.

In addition to the distress surrounding his wife’s death, Winston received two other shocks when he applied for her survivor pension. Most pension plans have a default survivor benefit, often at 60 per cent which can be adjusted upward. If one spouse dies, the other gets a reduced, but substantial, monthly payment to maintain their lifestyle.

Not so in the case of the CPP. Even if both spouses have contributed all their lives as in the case of the Billards, the survivor is only entitled to the maximum of one full benefit. The rationale is the notion that nobody should be able to get more than the maximum that one person would receive who had worked all his life.

Had Winston not worked he would have been entitled to 60 per cent of his wife’s benefit.

“I was shocked,” Winston says. “I thought this must be a mistake.”

The second shock was the size of the benefit he would receive. He is getting just $22.75 more a month which doesn’t bring him up to the maximum. When Winston appealed the payment they showed him the details of the calculation and said he could not be paid any more.

He’s now getting $933 a month, including the $22.75 versus the 2013 maximum of $1,012.

“It doesn’t seem fair,” he says. “In my case, the extra amount would not buy me a good meal in a restaurant,” he says. “This in effect is another form of taxation with the government the winner.”

It doesn’t seem fair, but it would require a change in legislation to get Winston a better deal. Amélie Maisonneuve with Human Resource & Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) which administers the CPP, could not discuss the specifics of the case. She offered her sympathies, but says HRSDC has strict rules it must apply.

“The rationale for establishing a limit . . . reflects the principle that no person should receive a combination of pensions that is greater than the amount payable to an individual who made the maximum contributions to the Plan throughout his or her working life,” she said.

She added that survivor’s benefits are meant to provide some help, not a second income.

“The benefits are not intended to replace a second source of household earnings or the retirement income of a dual-earning family,” she said.

The CPP is governed by the principle of pooled risk. This recognizes that some people live longer than others and will get more benefits from the fund. The money that would have gone to pay Sheila Billard’s benefits is now available for another Canadian’s pension.

The Billard’s case might seem to make a good argument for why we should all take CPP early.

But Fred Vettese, chief actuary at human resource consultant Morneau Sheppel, says not. While offering sympathies to Winston Billard, he says the odds are in your favour if you wait. If you’re healthy and can wait, you should, he says.

HRSDC says if you delay CPP until 70 you will receive roughly double the amount that you would have received at age 60 and 42 per cent more than what you would get at age 65.

Statistics Canada says a 65-year-old Canadian can expect to live, on average, another 20 years, so by waiting, you get a bigger payment that is inflation protected for a long time.

The great unknown is longevity. Statistics and probability are one thing, individual circumstances another. While it’s likely that we’ll all live longer and probable that we will, that’s cold comfort when life gets in the way.

[readon1 url="http://www.thestar.com/business/personal_finance/2013/03/03/take_or_delay_cpp_read_this_retirees_2275_pension_shock.html"]Source:www.thestar.com[/readon1]

 New rules that will curb wind power output in Ontario are coming. But wind form operators will receive payment for lost output

Ontario wind power companies have reached an agreement that will curb electricity output from wind turbines when there’s surplus power on the grid.

In return, the companies will get compensated for lost output, within certain limits.

The agreement puts an end to a dispute before the Ontario Energy Board that pitted the wind companies against provincial power agencies.

Until now, wind power has had almost unrestricted access to the power grid, under rules designed to encourage the development of renewable power in Ontario.

Wind power is especially tricky to deal with, because there’s a lot of it and the wind often blows strongest overnight or on weekends, when demand is low.

Nuclear plants also produce power regardless of market conditions, because most nuclear units are very difficult to control – they’re either on or off.

As more wind power floods onto the grid, the combination of wind and nuclear sometimes leads to power surpluses, forcing Ontario to sell power to its neighbours at a loss, or even pay them to take it.

The new rules will allow the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) to switch off the flow of power from wind turbines if there’s too little demand.

Wind operators will be compensated for some, but not all, of their lost output.

The Ontario Power Authority outlined a compensation model recently under which wind companies would have to absorb a certain portion of the lost output, but would be paid if the loss output exceeded certain limits.

(Other generators also get paid not to produce at times. Bruce Power is sometimes asked to cut the output from several of its nuclear units, but is compensated for the lost production.)

Controlling power output has become a pressing issue in Ontario as more and more renewable power connects to the grid. An additional 3,000 megawatts of wind power alone is due to come on stream in the next 18 months.

The IESO had estimated that coping with surplus power production will cost Ontario’s power system up to $200 million a year if market rules don’t change.

[readon1 url="http://www.thestar.com/business/2013/03/04/new_wind_power_rules_coming_in_ontario_to_curb_output.html"]Source:www.thestar.com[/readon1]

Doctors announced on Sunday that a baby had been cured of an H.I.V. infection for the first time, a startling development that could change how infected newborns are treated and sharply reduce the number of children living with the virus that causes AIDS.

The baby, born in rural Mississippi, was treated aggressively with antiretroviral drugs starting around 30 hours after birth, something that is not usually done. If further study shows this works in other babies, it will almost certainly be recommended globally. The United Nations estimates that 330,000 babies were newly infected in 2011, the most recent year for which there is data, and that more than three million children globally are living with H.I.V.

If the report is confirmed, the child born in Mississippi would be only the second well-documented case of a cure in the world. That could give a lift to research aimed at a cure, something that only a few years ago was thought to be virtually impossible, though some experts said the findings in the baby would probably not be relevant to adults.

The first person cured was Timothy Brown, known as the Berlin patient, a middle-aged man with leukemia who received a bone-marrow transplant from a donor genetically resistant to H.I.V. infection.

“For pediatrics, this is our Timothy Brown,” said Dr. Deborah Persaud, associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and lead author of the report on the baby. “It’s proof of principle that we can cure H.I.V. infection if we can replicate this case.”

Dr. Persaud and other researchers spoke in advance of a presentation of the findings on Monday at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Atlanta. The results have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

Some outside experts, who have not yet heard all the details, said they needed convincing that the baby had truly been infected. If not, this would be a case of prevention, something already done for babies born to infected mothers.

“The one uncertainty is really definitive evidence that the child was indeed infected,” said Dr. Daniel R. Kuritzkes, chief of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Dr. Persaud and some other outside scientists said they were certain the baby — whose name and gender were not disclosed — had been infected. There were five positive tests in the baby’s first month of life — four for viral RNA and one for DNA. And once the treatment started, the virus levels in the baby’s blood declined in the pattern characteristic of infected patients.

Dr. Persaud said there was also little doubt that the child experienced what she called a “functional cure.” Now 2 1/2, the child has been off drugs for a year with no sign of functioning virus.

The mother arrived at a rural hospital in the fall of 2010 already in labor and gave birth prematurely. She had not seen a doctor during the pregnancy and did not know she had H.I.V. When a test showed the mother might be infected, the hospital transferred the baby to the University of Mississippi Medical Center, where it arrived at about 30 hours old.

Dr. Hannah B. Gay, an associate professor of pediatrics, ordered two blood draws an hour apart to test for the presence of the virus’ RNA and DNA.

The tests found a level of virus at about 20,000 copies per milliliter, fairly low for a baby. But since tests so early in life were positive, it suggests the infection occurred in the womb rather than during delivery, Dr. Gay said.

Typically a newborn with an infected mother would be given one or two drugs as a prophylactic measure. But Dr. Gay said that based on her experience, she almost immediately used a three-drug regimen aimed at treatment, not prophylaxis, not even waiting for the test results confirming infection.

Virus levels rapidly declined with treatment and were undetectable by the time the baby was a month old. That remained the case until the baby was 18 months old, after which the mother stopped coming to the hospital and stopped giving the drugs.

When the mother and child returned five months later, Dr. Gay expected to see high viral loads in the baby. But the tests were negative.

Suspecting a laboratory error, she ordered more tests. “To my greater surprise, all of these came back negative,” Dr. Gay said.

Dr. Gay contacted Dr. Katherine Luzuriaga, an immunologist at the University of Massachusetts, who was working with Dr. Persaud and others on a project to document possible pediatric cures. The researchers, sponsored by amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, put the baby through a battery of sophisticated tests. They found tiny amounts of some viral genetic material but no virus able to replicate, even lying dormant in so-called reservoirs in the body.

There have been scattered cases reported in the past, including one in The New England Journal of Medicine in 1995, of babies clearing the virus, even without treatment.

Those reports were greeted skeptically, particularly since testing methods were not very sophisticated back then. But those reports and this new one could suggest there is something different about babies’ immune systems, said Dr. Joseph McCune of the University of California, San Francisco.

 One hypothesis is that the drugs killed off the virus before it could establish a hidden reservoir in the baby. One reason people cannot be cured now is that the virus hides in a dormant state, out of reach of existing drugs. When drug therapy is stopped, the virus can emerge from hiding.

“That goes along with the concept that, if you treat before the virus has had an opportunity to establish a large reservoir and before it can destroy the immune system, there’s a chance you can withdraw therapy and have no virus,” said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Adults, however, typically do not know they are infected right as it happens, he said.

Dr. Steven Deeks, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, said if the reservoir never established itself, then he would not call it a true cure, though this was somewhat a matter of semantics. “Was there enough time for a latent reservoir, the true barrier to cure, to establish itself?” he said.

Still, he and others said, the results could lead to a new protocol for quickly testing and treating infants.

In the United States, transmission from mother to child is rare — several experts said there are only about 200 cases a year or even fewer — because infected mothers are generally treated during their pregnancies.

If the mother has been treated during pregnancy, babies are typically given six weeks of prophylactic treatment with one drug, AZT, while being tested for infection. In cases like the Mississippi one, where the mother was not treated during pregnancy, standards have been changing, but typically two drugs are used.

But women in many developing countries are less likely to be treated during pregnancy. And in South Africa and other African countries that lack sophisticated testing, babies born to infected mothers are often not tested until after six weeks, said Dr. Yvonne Bryson, chief of global pediatric infectious disease at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Dr. Bryson, who was not involved in the Mississippi work, said she was certain the baby had been infected and called the finding “one of the most exciting things I’ve heard in a long time.”

Studies are being planned to see if early testing and aggressive treatment can work for other babies. While the bone marrow transplant that cured Mr. Brown is an arduous and life-threatening procedure, the Mississippi treatment is not and could become a new standard of care.

While it might be difficult for some poorer countries to do, treating for only a year or two would be cost effective, “sparing the kid a lifetime of antiretroviral therapy,” said Rowena Johnston, director of research at amfAR.

[readon1 url="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/04/health/for-first-time-baby-cured-of-hiv-doctors-say.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0"]Source:www.nytimes.com[/readon1]

Never underestimate first-graders.

Jonah Pournazarian, 7, is best friends with Dylan Siegel, 6. Jonah has been diagnosed with glycogen storage disease type 1B , a rare liver disorder that doesn’t have a cure. Dylan decided to raise money for research to help his friend. Late last fall, he hatched a plan and approached his parents.

“We said, ‘Let’s do a lemonade stand, the typical thing,’” David Siegel, Dylan’s dad, told ABCNews.com. “He looked at us and said, ‘I want to write a book.’”

After just two months on the market, sales of the handwritten and illustrated book and chocolate bars have raised $30,000 and counting, David Siegel said.

Now Dylan’s goal is $1 million, his father said.

The 16-page book “Chocolate Bar,” uses the term to mean “cool.” “Disneyland is so chocolate bar,” the book starts out. The ending? “I like to help my friends. That is the biggest chocolate bar.”

Jonah’s parents, who live in Los Angeles, set up a fund for their son six years ago that has raised $400,000, but now, “Chocolate Bar” looks set to exceed that sum, his father, Rabin Pournazarian, told ABCNews.com.

Whole Foods has donated hundreds of chocolate bars.  A local Barnes & Noble bookstore hosted a book signing that drew 200 people, Dylan’s father said. People from states including Tennessee and Missouri have donated money to the cause via Facebook and a website. The boys appeared on CBS television show “The Doctors” last week, pinching each others’ cheeks as they told their story.

Jonah’s genetic condition afflicts one in a million children, his father said. Most days all he eats is cornstarch mixed with chicken soup with vegetables that his mother makes and feeds him through a tube, his father said.

His feeding schedule is sensitive — the couple keeps an alarm in the bedroom set for 3:30 a.m., his father said. At school, Jonah’s parents have had to ask parents of other children to keep their child home if they get sick or to at least notify Jonah’s parents so they can keep him home.

“What could be a common cold … will land Jonah in the hospital for five to six days,” his father said. “It happened last month.”

Jonah was diagnosed with his illness when he was a baby and suffered from night sweats and low blood sugar, his father said. The existing fund has been “very grassroots” and mostly friends and family have contributed to it, Rabin Pournazarian said.

Jonah, who has a fraternal twin brother Eli who does not suffer from the condition, “gets the importance of finding a cure as much as a 7-year-old can,” his father said. “He doesn’t want his (feeding) tube forever.”

The money from the fund and book and chocolate sales have been sent to the University of Florida School of Medicine in Gainsville where research is taking place under Dr. David Weinstein, who is working with 200 families, he said.

It’s the first time the rare disease has gotten national attention, Pournazarian said.

Jonah and his family couldn’t be happier.

“We never dreamed that this was going to happen,” David Siegel said. “It’s just  struck a nerve and now we don’t want to stop until we’ve hit our mission.

Never underestimate first-graders.

Jonah Pournazarian, 7, is best friends with Dylan Siegel, 6. Jonah has been diagnosed with glycogen storage disease type 1B , a rare liver disorder that doesn’t have a cure. Dylan decided to raise money for research to help his friend. Late last fall, he hatched a plan and approached his parents.

“We said, ‘Let’s do a lemonade stand, the typical thing,’” David Siegel, Dylan’s dad, told ABCNews.com. “He looked at us and said, ‘I want to write a book.’”

After just two months on the market, sales of the handwritten and illustrated book and chocolate bars have raised $30,000 and counting, David Siegel said.

Now Dylan’s goal is $1 million, his father said.

The 16-page book “Chocolate Bar,” uses the term to mean “cool.” “Disneyland is so chocolate bar,” the book starts out. The ending? “I like to help my friends. That is the biggest chocolate bar.”

Jonah’s parents, who live in Los Angeles, set up a fund for their son six years ago that has raised $400,000, but now, “Chocolate Bar” looks set to exceed that sum, his father, Rabin Pournazarian, told ABCNews.com.

Whole Foods has donated hundreds of chocolate bars.  A local Barnes & Noble bookstore hosted a book signing that drew 200 people, Dylan’s father said. People from states including Tennessee and Missouri have donated money to the cause via Facebook and a website. The boys appeared on CBS television show “The Doctors” last week, pinching each others’ cheeks as they told their story.

Jonah’s genetic condition afflicts one in a million children, his father said. Most days all he eats is cornstarch mixed with chicken soup with vegetables that his mother makes and feeds him through a tube, his father said.

His feeding schedule is sensitive — the couple keeps an alarm in the bedroom set for 3:30 a.m., his father said. At school, Jonah’s parents have had to ask parents of other children to keep their child home if they get sick or to at least notify Jonah’s parents so they can keep him home.

“What could be a common cold … will land Jonah in the hospital for five to six days,” his father said. “It happened last month.”

Jonah was diagnosed with his illness when he was a baby and suffered from night sweats and low blood sugar, his father said. The existing fund has been “very grassroots” and mostly friends and family have contributed to it, Rabin Pournazarian said.

Jonah, who has a fraternal twin brother Eli who does not suffer from the condition, “gets the importance of finding a cure as much as a 7-year-old can,” his father said. “He doesn’t want his (feeding) tube forever.”

The money from the fund and book and chocolate sales have been sent to the University of Florida School of Medicine in Gainsville where research is taking place under Dr. David Weinstein, who is working with 200 families, he said.

It’s the first time the rare disease has gotten national attention, Pournazarian said.

Jonah and his family couldn’t be happier.

“We never dreamed that this was going to happen,” David Siegel said. “It’s just  struck a nerve and now we don’t want to stop until we’ve hit our mission.

Entertainment's biggest night of the year finally arrived Sunday. and with it, came plenty of buzz: From red carpet news to emerging fashion trends, click through to find out what was buzzing at the 2013 Academy Awards ...

Jennifer Lawrence has had her share of luck this awards season, but not so much luck when it comes to accepting the awards. After it was announced that she had won Best Actress for her role in “Silver Linings Playbook,” Lawrence took a spill as she attempted to walk up the stage to accept her award. “You guys are standing up because I fell and that’s really embarrassing,” she said. Awards show junkies may remember that her dress nearly fell apart upon accepting a SAG award this year. Next time maybe she can just give her speech from her seat.

[readon1 url="http://wonderwall.msn.com/movies/whats-buzzing-at-the-2013-academy-awards-23881.gallery?photoId=105980
"]Source:wonderwall.msn.com[/readon1]